The client is one of the UK’s leading retailers with a reputation for delivering customer value through focusing on reducing its cost base.
Purpose of the project
In-line with the culture of the organisation, the first objective was to review the “purpose” of the client’s graduate programmes across six business areas in order to establish the cost v. benefit and also whether the programme “success factors” were being met. Having assessed the value of continuing with the graduate programmes in each of the six business areas Jarred Consulting was then asked to provide recommendations around ‘future state’ graduate recruitment and development.
How Jarred Consulting helped
To advise on Phase 1 of the project, Jarred Consulting embarked on a data gathering exercise, reviewing the competitor programmes, assessing internal quantitative and qualitative data, the latter obtained through speaking with the business managers and current and recent graduates. The analysis of the success of the programme included a SWOT analysis and a review of the ‘success factors’ of the graduate programmes including retention rates, financial value added during and post programmes, reputational enhancement in the marketplace and creation of a talent pipeline (to senior positions). By considering these elements, Jarred Consulting was able to evaluate the return on investment (ROI) of each programme (to include cost of recruitment, cost of training and development)
Our findings were that the programmes were beneficial to the client and therefore we put forward written recommendations regarding the continuation of investment in them. The recommendations included our views on the design of future graduate programmes in relation to the attraction proposition, the length of the programmes and development interventions along the way. We also advised on how a high potential graduate programme would dovetail with existing leadership programmes at more senior levels and how high potential graduates could be fast-tracked.